Poetic Justice
Ross Lombardo, Group 3: Fiction, International College Hong Kong
hang Sun looked out from his guard tower on the Great Wall. The plains stretched out in front of him,
and a few odd trees and bushes were scattered across the flat grassland. The flat land ended abruptly
with a large river with a bridge across it. Ruins of a few old wood buildings were right next to the
bridge, the wooden walls looking almost too rotten to be standing.
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He had to admit it was a nice view, then again it was probably the only nice thing about being a guard on
the wall. He hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks seeing as though his pay was just enough for him to afford a
small bowl of rice and water twice a day if he was lucky;some days he didn't get wages as sections of the wall
are easily forgotten.
Every day he would sit in the tower looking out at the land beyond the wall. Most of the day was spent
watching as the landscape, nice looking as it was, got duller and duller. This is because nothing ever happened
on this section of the wall. Unlike the others, he joined the army because he wanted to see the world and all it
had to offer. Instead, he was stuck on the Great Wall. It was not that Chang had anything against the Great
Wall ; he always wanted to see the Great Wall as a child. However, his station wasn't even that important -just
some remote part of the wall facing some long abandoned village.
Chang didn't know it now, but something would happen. This “something” would change everything for
him. Afterwards he would think back to this, and wonder what it would have been like had he not made the
decisions he did.
He propped his halberd against the wall and walked down the steps. His watch over (not that anyone
would take over for him). He swiftly walked down to the barracks and he sat in the mess hall with the other
forty guards. Chang sat down at a table on his own and unpacked his meagre rations of rice, took off his red
helmet and started eating.
Usually, Chang sat with the other guards, but since he came off his shift before the other guards, he
would eat earlier than them in the afternoon. He finished his rice and put his helmet back on, feeling safer with
it on his head.
Suddenly Chang heard the whinny of horses and wooden wheels on stone. Curious, he got up and walked
into the barracks courtyard to see what it was.
The guards wandered into the courtyard from the barracks and saw a wooden cart dragged by a horse,
which was flanked by two guards and a man in fine golden robes was sitting on it. The man in robes dismounted
and turned to the group of guards now gathered in the courtyard.
“
I am inspector Li Wu, and I have come to inspect this section of the wall and give you your wages.”
The guards chatted amongst themselves. Li Wu was a notoriously corrupt and arrogant official who was
rumored to take soldier’s wages for himself. However nothing could be done as there was never any proof.